Steven Torrey As a comedy from the era of the Great Depression, a bum found at the New York city dump, who had at one time been a man of means, becomes the butler of the filthy rich. The premise was made for comedy but William Powell (as Godfrey) and Carole Lombard (as Irene Bullock) gives the characters a human touch. When you look at Jimmy Steward in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", you never got past Steward as something like a cartoon character. With Powell, you see the human face of existence, the complexity of existence, at the whim of existence. Powell (as Godfrey) had been of means and gave up his fortune over the loss of a love, only to find himself by whimsical fate back in the lap of luxury all over again. And such is his disdain for this lap of luxury, he could end up in the dumps again.But there is more to the story than that. Each one of these actors knows by the standards of depression era society, they are the filthy rich, making phenomenal amounts of money they could never envision in their youth. Carole Lombard's salary was some $450,000 a year. That is filthy rich by any standard and certainly by the standard of the Great Depression. So these actors had a real sense of the whimsy of fate and how unequal and oftentimes unjust it can be.That Powell/Godfrey opens at the dump a fancy nightclub and names it "The Dump" suggests keen awareness of what this story is all about.Powell had the persona and acting skill to pull that sentience off on the screen as he recites lines written by Morrie Ryskind, lines based on a novel, "1101 Park Ave" by Eric Hatch. And these people/actors receive tons of money for essentially playing themselves. Such is fate.The film is great because of the ensemble cast, the talent of Powell and Lombard, and a topic about the whimsy of fate and how it can turn, and an expectation for a turn for the better by the end. While the ending may be hokum, it is delightful hokum. Powell gets the girl, and gets his wealth back.

reyesking "My man Godfrey"(1936) is directed by Gregory la cava. starring William Powell and Carole Lombard. "My man Godfrey" is hilarious this family of a far higher social and financial standing then that of Godfrey if also far more off their rocker then anyone Godfrey associates with at his previous home at the city dump the best scene that displays and explains this is honestly one of the best scenes where molly is talking to Godfrey about the many butlers the family has been through which "frankly" is quite strange because families of wealth usually have one butler who stays part of the family definitely. however it is not because the family continue to fire and rehire butlers but because the butlers run out due to the ridiculous behaviors of the clan.

CriticalViewing This film carries on the moral of "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you", at first comically when Godfrey literally says this when he bring the tomato juice for the hungover mother of the house. When he is brought in by Irene to work as the family butler, she saves him from the streets and remaining a forgotten man. However later on in the film, when the family faces financial ruin due to some bad investments, Godfrey is able to help them cover their debt. As he worked as their butler, he took the opportunity to better his life overall by educating himself and investing. And despite the cruel Cornelia, he doesn't allow himself to be stepped on by her, he stands up for himself when she tries to frame him, but in the end tells her face to face when he has his leaving talk with the family before he helps to bail him out that even she helped teach him a lesson that will and has helped better him as a man. Not to say that tho family he is working for isn't completely crazy. They are. They're make this a screwball. As Godfrey tries to complete his work and remain the sole sane head in this house that is very easy, I would imagine, to lose all your marbles. This films touches on many of the Hayes Code rules, such as the drug rule, and the man and woman rules. If I delved into all of this, I would be writing 2 pages worth of material at least!! That's how chock full of good Screwball, skirting around the Hayes Code, humor this film contains!!

j-goslin Within the first five minutes of watching this film, I knew that it would go down in history as one of my very favorite movies. The classification of "Screwball Comedy" accurately describes nearly every aspect of this film. The cast of characters in this film did an incredibly good job in the roles that they were cast. Although I did not always understand the references that they made, I would expect nothing less as I did not grow up in the time period of which the movie is set. I would imagine that the set and the props are very realistic for the time period although I did not live during that time and therefore wouldn't know for sure that the inside of a house looked like that in the 1930's. The characters also had a very good on air personality and developed very realistic relationships with their co-stars which only added to the hilariousness of the film and made for a very pleasant viewing experience.